Thursday, January 19, 2017

(ISW) ISF is nearing the
end of operations in eastern Mosul after a major push from January 10 to 18 to
recapture several remaining neighbourhoods and the University of Mosul. The
Counter Terrorism Service (CTS), ISF’s elite urban warfare units, advanced in
which to clear the University of Mosul and to extend ISF’s control of the
Tigris River. CTS officially announced control over the university on
January 15, after storming it two days prior, and continued to advance north
along the river bank, seizing two additional bridges and key government
buildings on January 13.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi Army (IA) and Federal Police are
consolidating gains in northern and south-eastern Iraq. The Iraqi Army is advancing
west along Mosul’s northern city limit towards the remaining ISIS-held areas in
eastern Mosul. Federal Police and Iraqi Army units announced on January 14 full
control of south-eastern Mosul with the recapture of Yarmjah and the south-eastern
countryside with the recapture of Qiz Fakhri, the last ISIS-held village on the
eastern bank. The Federal Police announced the same day the completion of its
mission in south-eastern Mosul and that its units will return to the southern
axis in order to resume efforts to break into the Mosul airport and southern
military base. This effort will likely occur in synchronization as the ISF
cross the Tigris River into western Mosul, though no time-line has yet been
given.

Recent reinforcements and increased Coalition advisor's
enabled these quick advances, though it is also likely that ISIS did not resist
the ISF to the same extent as in the early stages of the city battle. The
destruction of the five bridges spanning the Tigris River by Coalition
air-strikes has likely limited ISIS’s mobility between east and west Mosul,
hurting its ability to reinforce and resupply its fighters in the east.
Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis stated on January 9 that ISIS has resorted
to makeshift means, including planks and cranes, to move people and equipment
into eastern Mosul. The ISF is therefore facing an enemy incapable of
regenerating its ranks as it takes losses. ISIS may have already withdrawn the
majority of its fighters from eastern Mosul, as well, in order to limit its
casualties in the face of growing ISF momentum.